Universal Newsreel

Video 6

Air Army Invades Germany

From the Pare Lorentz Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Army Public Domain Footage from archive.org, (1) "When the entire Rhine front explodes into action the First Allied Airborne Army takes flight for the Westphalian plains. From an observation post Gen. Eisenhower and Prime Minister Churchill watch the sky trains roar by overhead. The drop area reached, thousands of chutes float to the ground from twin side-door C-46 carriers, while giant C-47 tow planes release their gliders. Despite damage the gliders land with their jeeps and other material. Shortly after, Nazi troops are marched in as captives, and this airborne invasion becomes one of the most successful in the history of warfare. Flail Tanks - The Canadian First Army uses huge tanks with heavy rotating chain beaters in front of them which explode any and all buried Nazi road mines." scenes of 1500 planes and gliders join in major invasion across the Rhine in the north, Churchill and Ike observe, parachutes from C-46 filling the sky with billowing parachutes, gliders land, plane crashes, 4000 soldiers taken as prisoners. (2) Coblenz Key to Saar Captured - "With tanks leading the way, units of Gen. Patton's U.S. 3rd Army advance on Coblenz, the thousand-year-old transportation center. Repeated air bombings and heavy artillery fire have reduced the city to ruins, from which the Nazis offer scattered resistance. Tom Priestley, Universal cameraman, covers the entire action. Dead soldiers litter the ground. A loud speaker is used to demand and direct surrender and several thousand Nazi prisoners are collared. White flags flutter from the few remaining ancient homes. Ancient Ehrenbrightstein Castle, used by the Germans as a fortress, is a battered pile of ruins. American tanks rumble through the narrow streets, and head eastward, deeper into Germany." Scenes of Universal's Tom Priestley operating camera to make films, soldiers fighting street by street in the town, Germans surrendering to Patton's 3rd Army (3) New French Sky Giant - "Secretly built during Nazi occupation, a gigantic 6 motor French flying boat is now unveiled. It takes off and flies as gracefully as anything in the air." (4) Airborne Division Decorated - "In a stirring speech, Gen. Eisenhower awards the Presidential Citation to the famous 101st Airborne Division for its heroic defense of Bastogne. Steel-helmeted Marlene Dietrich joins the entire reviewing party in saluting the 101st." Scenes of Eisenhower honors Screaming Eagles, Ike speaks on 1st time decoration given to an entire division, Marlene Dietrich salutes. (complete newsreel)

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